Petula Clark

Every Tuesday and
Thursday, former Warner Bros. Records executive and industry insider
Stan Cornyn ruminates on the past, present, and future of the music
business.

With the invention of multi-song collections (back c. 1910 or so), the
term “album” came to be used in the record business. Albums would
have a front and back cover, and sleeves to hold individual discs
inside those covers. For longer-concept music (like half an hour
of ...) on disc, albums came to be the thing.

Those inside-front cover, inside-rear cover, and rear cover albums –
all had room for printed stuff. The inside of a cover was known
as a “liner,” undoubtedly because it was like a jacket, inside or
“liner” there, too. In fact, record albums themselves soon became known as
“jackets.” Whether the record industry owed anything to the
clothing industry is doubtful, but I just thought that, if you’ve read
this far, you should have learned something.